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National Parks MCP Server

Plan US National Park Service trips with park details, alerts, campgrounds, activities, and events over MCP.

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Install National Parks MCP Server

Pick your client, then add it in one click or paste the config.

STDIONode.js
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "national-parks-mcp-server": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": [
        "@cyanheads/national-parks-mcp-server@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "NPS_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Settings → Developer → Edit Config, merge this into mcpServers, then fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop.

Values are written into the snippet above so you can paste it as is. They never leave your browser.

We couldn’t confirm it starts correctly

We ran the install command but it didn't respond within our test window — this can mean a slow first-time install rather than a real problem.

bunx @cyanheads/national-parks-mcp-server@latest

Process exited before answering initialize.

This is an experimental automated check and can have false negatives — missing environment variables, a slow cold install, etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean something’s wrong. Last checked Today.

Overview

national-parks-mcp-server connects AI clients to the National Park Service Data API for trip planning across national parks, monuments, historic sites, and seashores. Its park-code-first workflow resolves locations before retrieving details, alerts, campgrounds, activities, or events. It supports stdio and Streamable HTTP, including a public hosted endpoint, and requires an NPS API key for self-hosted use. Reach for it when an agent needs structured, current NPS planning information rather than state park, Forest Service, or BLM data.

Use cases

  • Find national parks near a destination or across selected states
  • Check closures, hazards, and other current park alerts
  • Compare campground amenities, reservation options, and fees
  • Browse accessible activities and points of interest
  • Find scheduled park events within travel dates

Key features

  • Search parks by place, state, free text, or activity
  • Batch details for up to ten parks
  • Retrieve alerts, closures, campgrounds, activities, and events
  • Support stdio and Streamable HTTP transports
  • Normalize inconsistent NPS API response fields
  • Preserve result counts, pagination context, and missing values

Tools6

What National Parks MCP Server lets your agent do. Expand a tool for its parameters.

Self-reported~212 tokens of context

Security & health

What it can reach and how reliably it runs — from our own checks, not the maintainer’s claims.

ActiveLast checked 2d ago

Recent health check succeeded.

7/7 checks healthy over the last 46d

Supply-chain signal

No high-severity advisories surfaced by our automated scan.

Critical 0High 0Medium 0Low 0

Scanned 5d ago via OSV.dev · @cyanheads/national-parks-mcp-server@latest (npm)

Adoption & maintenance

Factual signals from GitHub, npm, and our automated checks — not a rating.

GitHub stars2Stargazers on the source repository.
npm downloads802Package downloads in the last 30 days.
Last commit3d agoMost recent push to the default branch.
Install checkInconclusiveDidn't respond in our test window — often a slow first install.
Tools exposed6Callable tools this server registers over MCP.

How National Parks MCP Server works

What national-parks-mcp-server does

national-parks-mcp-server exposes six MCP tools for planning trips within the US National Park Service system. It searches parks by place name, state, or free text, then uses the resulting parkCode values to retrieve related information. Covered sites include national parks, monuments, historic sites, and seashores; state parks, Forest Service locations, and BLM land are outside its scope.

Park results include identifiers and planning-oriented summaries. Detailed park lookups can include descriptions, activities, fees and passes, seasonal hours, contacts, directions, weather overviews, coordinates, images, and NPS pages. The service also surfaces current alerts, campground logistics, curated activities, and scheduled events.

How it works

The intended sequence starts with nps_find_parks. Exact park codes and names receive priority, while state codes, comma-separated state lists, activities, and free-text queries can narrow the search. Subsequent tools accept park or state filters where appropriate.

Responses include result counts, applied-filter context, pagination or truncation information, and notices for empty results. Missing values remain null rather than being inferred. Park coordinates can be used by compatible weather servers such as nws-weather and open-meteo, but coordinates are not invented when the NPS data lacks them.

The NPS API response formats are normalized before reaching MCP handlers, including numeric and boolean values represented as strings, nested campground counts, amenity arrays, and the events response envelope. Transient network and upstream server failures receive light retry handling.

Setup and configuration

The server can run through stdio or Streamable HTTP. A public Streamable HTTP instance is available at https://national-parks.caseyjhand.com/mcp, so compatible clients can connect without installing a local process. The repository also provides installation links and configurations for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code, along with HTTP examples for Claude Code and Cline.

For a local package-based deployment, the documented client configurations invoke the npm package through npx and pass an NPS_API_KEY environment variable. Set NPS_API_KEY to an API key issued for the National Park Service Data API. An absent or invalid key produces an explicit error that identifies the required variable.

Tools and capabilities

  • nps_find_parks searches by query, state, or activity and returns park codes plus summaries. Results can be paged and limited.
  • nps_get_park batches up to ten park codes and supports field selection for activities, topics, fees, hours, contacts, directions, and images.
  • nps_get_alerts reports recent dangers, cautions, information notices, and park closures for parks or states.
  • nps_find_campgrounds returns amenities, site availability by reservation type, booking guidance, fees, accessibility, and locations.
  • nps_get_activities lists activities for one park or state, including duration, location, season, accessibility, fees, pets, and reservation indicators.
  • nps_find_events searches a date window and returns event timing, recurrence details, location, category, fees, and registration links.

Limitations and notes

Activities require a single park or state filter, while events use page number and page size rather than an offset. A park may legitimately have no campgrounds, curated activities, or events; those cases return notices instead of tool errors. Event-related NPS errors can appear alongside otherwise usable results. nps_get_park reports unresolved codes separately and fails only when no requested parks resolve.

Read the full README View source on GitHub

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Frequently Asked Questions about National Parks MCP Server

national-parks-mcp-server is an MCP server that connects AI clients to the National Park Service Data API. Its main tools find parks, retrieve park details, check alerts, search campgrounds, browse activities, and find events. It supports US national parks, monuments, historic sites, and seashores.

Install it through an MCP client using the npm package and set the NPS_API_KEY environment variable. The server supports stdio and Streamable HTTP, and a public hosted endpoint is available at https://national-parks.caseyjhand.com/mcp for clients that can connect to remote MCP servers.

Yes, national-parks-mcp-server works with Cursor. The project provides a Cursor installation link and an MCP configuration that runs the npm package with `npx` and supplies `NPS_API_KEY`.

Yes, it can return campground reservation guidance and booking URLs. `nps_find_campgrounds` also reports reservable and first-come site counts, amenities, accessibility, fees, coordinates, and NPS pages for matching campgrounds.

Use `nps_find_events` with a `dateStart` and `dateEnd` in `YYYY-MM-DD` format, plus an optional park, state, or text filter. Results include event dates, occurrence dates, times, locations, categories, fees, and registration or information URLs.

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